


Three Avengers and a Baby

by CaptainR0cket



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Norse Religion & Lore
Genre: Childbirth, Difficult childbirth, Discussed Kidnapping, Gen, Surgery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:46:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24632533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainR0cket/pseuds/CaptainR0cket
Summary: Bruce Banner contends with an unexpected visitor.
Kudos: 12





	1. The Little Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> Another attempt to reconcile Loki's monstrous children within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This takes place after the events of Thor: The Dark World.

“You cast a long shadow,” the woman said. She sat in the center of the cell, cross-legged, the dark green and gray of her ranger’s uniform showing in stark contrast to the white walls. Her hair hung down around her face, obscuring her features, but Banner could see her eyes glowing from beneath the inky tresses.

“You don’t know the half of it, lady,” Banner said, looking up from the report on his screen. It didn’t say much; they would need more than a cursory scan to make sense of their… guest. Bloodwork, MRIs, scans… she’d been strong enough to go a round with Rogers and obliterate half of the North Cascades National Park's visitors' center before they’d subdued her.

“I could help you,” she continued, perfectly still except for those glowing eyes. “Show you how to work the poison in your blood in your favor.”

She held his gaze evenly until the hair on the back of his neck stood up. “Right,” he said slowly. “In exchange for freedom?”

The lights flickered once again, and Banner opened another window on his screen and typed in a command code. Let the system deal with the bug. The woman stood and moved to the electric containment field.

“In exchange for mercy,” she said. She held up a hand, palm out, less than an inch from the buzz of the barrier. “Mercy, and the leave to return home.”

Banner peered over his glasses at her. His vision blurred, casting her form into shadow, and he pushed the glasses back and rubbed at his face. “Look,” he said, and stepped around the desk to approach her. “I’ve been where you are. I get it, but you’ve got to understand that, after the Battle of New York, things are a little touchy around here. Unless you tell us who you are, where you come from, and what you’ve been doing with the energy you’ve been pulling from the earth, then I can’t help you.”

She studied him. “Jotunheim.”

“Excuse me?”

“I come from Jotunheim.”

“That’s - where’s that?”

“Jotunheim is one of the Nine Realms.”

The word triggered a memory in Banner’s mind. “Realm - like Asgard?”

“If you like.”

“Do you know Thor?”

“We’ve met… briefly.”

“How did you get here?”

“I walked.”

“Walked?” Banner laughed in disbelief. “You walked from Jotunheim?”

“It is a simple thing if one knows the way.”

 _Nat should be here, Banner thought. Or Rogers, or anybody other than me._ Walking between realms, which according to Thor, weren’t planets but more like dimensions… “Okay,” he said. “I’ll bite. How do you walk between the realms?”

“Energy is all around us,” she said, “creating paths, bridges, doorways. Once a path is created, one can follow it… if one knows where to take the first step.”

Banner considered. “So, what’s stopping you? Why don’t you just walk away?”

She didn’t answer, just stared at him with those weird, unblinking eyes.

“Well,” he said, “what do we call you?”

The door to the lab swung open. “Witch!” Thor boomed. He strode across the floor, beard bristling and brows heavy, Mjolnir in hand. Steve Rogers followed in his wake.

The prisoner watched their approach. “I did not think to see you again, Asgardian,” she said, and stood. She was tall, as tall as Thor, and strong enough to keep him busy. Banner had seen the tape.

“You should have stayed in Jotunheim, where I threw you.”

The woman’s smile was cold, pretty features drawn tight in rictus. Thor took another step closer, and her expression broke. “I will devour you, Thunderer,” she snarled, eyes flashing. “I will eat your heart.”

“Thor, if you hit her with a lightning blast you’ll take out the entire wing,” Rogers cautioned.

“It will be no less than she deserves,” Thor asserted. “Show them your true self, Witch. No more deceit.”

The lights in the lab flickered. When recounting the events of the day, Banner could not recall if it was the face of the witch he saw first, or the half-moon of her pregnant belly.

In her true form she was...something, but the peculiarity of her appearance was secondary to the fact that she was very heavily pregnant, obviously in labor, and certainly in trouble.

Her dark hair hung wet over her shoulders, and the shift she wore was damp with sweat. She groaned and stumbled to her knees. “Mercy,” she demanded, at the same moment Banner stepped forward.

Thor’s hand caught his arm reflexively, and released it. “A trick,” he said, and the uncertainty in his voice made up Banner’s mind.

“We can’t take that chance,” Banner said.

“We can’t afford not to,” Rogers cautioned.

“Everyone who isn’t in labor or a doctor needs to keep their opinions to themselves,” Banner said over his shoulder, “and this cell needs to be cleared and prepped. Get medical in here. Look,” he said, addressing the patient-prisoner. “I’m taking a gamble here. If you’re playing us, then the Other Guy comes out, Thor swings his hammer, and you go toe-to-toe with Captain America again. Got it?”

The woman groaned in response. Banner typed a code into the keypad on the wall, and the containment shield lifted.

A team arrived, white-clad and hauling ass, and all hell broke loose.

“Not them,” the woman panted, and the force of her blow sent one of the orderlies at her side against the opposite wall. The man shook his head, stunned. His partner spoke.

“Dr. Banner, she’s got to weigh 500 pounds.”

“Thor, get her up and onto the gurney,” Banner ordered as he scrubbed at his arms in the lab sink. “Med team, out and on stand-by.”

“Have you delivered a baby before?” Rogers asked, voice low. His eyes tracked Thor’s progress.

“Human babies,” Banner muttered.

The woman’s voice was ragged. “There’s a file on your hard drive,” she rasped. “This time is different, and I cannot...” She bit off a groan.

“Get a med tech in here,” Banner ordered, to no one in particular. A tense-looking tech appeared and took a seat at the computer Banner indicated. “Check for a file, anything that might help us out.”

The woman’s eyes tracked him as he approached. He hooked a rolling chair with his ankle and settled himself at the end of the gurney. They didn’t typically come with birthing apparatus, but after a drunken night of story-telling and lies Stark had designed one that would hold a pregnant Thor.

Lucky chance.

“I need to see what’s happening,” he said, eyes locked on hers. She clutched at the shift she wore, tugging it up and out of his way.

The medic spoke. “Sir, I can’t read this.”

“Thor?” Cap called.

Banner’s exploration confirmed his fears. The baby appeared to be turned, twisted in the womb.

“High Asgardian?” Thor’s tone was one of disbelief. “Woman…”

Her weak laugh was cut short.

“You were worthy of Loki,” Thor muttered. “Banner, this document tells me things. The humors of her blood, the internal map of her organs…”

“Talk to the tech and get it translated into something I don’t have to think too hard about,” Banner called over his shoulder. “What’s your name, honey?”

“Angrboda.”

“Okay, Angrboda. How long have you been in labor?”

“Thirty hours. Forty. I have lost track.”

“Christ, is that normal? Thor, is that normal?”

“From between the rising of the celestial star to the…” Thor read. 

“It’s coming quickly, Dr. Banner,” the med tech supplied.

“You’re not dilated enough, and I think the baby’s turned.”

“She will claw her way out of me,” Angrboda gasped, and her black eyes glowed. “Fierce daughter.”

“Babies don’t do that,” Cap said resolutely. “Ma’am, if I’d known that you…”

“This one might, for all we know,” Banner said, and offered up a silent _fuck you very much_ to the fickle Universe. “Prep for Cesarean.”

The med tech cursed.

Bruce drew in a deep breath. The close, cloying scent of blood, the panic, the horrible uncertainty of going blind into a situation just different enough to be dangerous…

_I’ve got this… I’ve got this… I’ve got this…_

“Banner, have you got this?”

“Get off my back, Rogers.” He pushed to his feet and stepped around the gurney. “Angrboda, you’ve got to help us out here. Fix the screen so that the tech can read it; let our people help. I’m not qualified for this.”

Angrboda caught at his hand. “It must be you,” she stated, desperation tinging her voice. “The others - they won’t understand. They will take my baby.”

Banner leaned down, clasping her hand in his. “Hey… hey. I’m right here. Nobody’s gonna take your baby.”

The med tech was at his shoulder, voice low. “We don’t have anything strong enough to anesthetize her or perform the surgery, sir. She’s built like an Asgardian.”

“Angrboda, talk to me. If someone at home has a difficult birth, what do you do?”

“Spells… incantations. Herbs. A strap of leather to hold between the teeth.”

_Shit._

Thor hummed, and nodded sagely. “The old ways are sometimes the best.”

“What?” _God, no._ “Look, do you have any of those herbs?”

Angrboda smiled fiercely, and her teeth were white, and even, and sharp. “I took them an hour ago,” she panted. “I am more than ready for the knife.”

An Asgardian knife, one of Thor’s, sanitized… a surgeon fed information by the tech’s voice in her ear. The lab at the Avengers’ training center became an operating room, computers and display monitors and test tubes turned silent witness to a very strange delivery.

The surgeon lifted the squirming baby, and bit back a curse as the attendant cut through the umbilical cord. Her voice was muffled by the mask she wore. “It’s… it’s not…”

“What the hell…” the attendant whispered as the baby gave voice to its first warbling cry.

Banner reached across Angrboda’s unconscious form and took the wailing baby from the surgeon. It was mottled, one side a pale, delicate porcelain, marked over with delicate lines, and the other side…

The attendant retreated, retching, and the surgeon stepped forward to work sutures into the incisions, muttering curses in Spanish under her breath. A nurse spoke. “Do we… do we wash it, or…”

“You people are professionals. Act like it,” Banner grumbled, and stepped across to the lab’s cleaning station. The nurse followed.

The baby opened her eyes at the touch of the water. One was black, as dark as her mother’s, and the other fish-belly white and unseeing. “Hey,” Banner said, as the little one wriggled and fussed. “Hey, I’ve got you. It’s alright. We’ll get you checked out and cleaned up and then back to your mom.”

Suction, wash, weigh…

The med tech spoke through the earpiece Banner wore. “I don’t think the antibiotic ointment will be effective on its eyes, Dr. Banner.”

“We’re nearly done here, Dr. Banner,” the surgeon said, as the nurse handed Banner a length of cotton to swaddle the baby.

“Is a room ready?”

“We can transport the mother in a few minutes.”

The noise of the delivery room faded into the background as Banner diapered and swaddled the baby. A perfect line ran the length of her body, separating each side. One side was healthy-looking, round and smooth, and the other side was… it was as if the pale mottling and tracery of veins under her skin simply ceased to exist, giving way to transparency. Even the skin itself was cool to the touch, but elastic, as if one side of her fed the other’s existence.

The baby cooed. “Alright, honey,” Banner said. “Alright.”

Banner held the baby closer, tucking her up under his chin. She was heavy, nearly 45 pounds of dense bone structure packed into a tiny body. He’d opened his shirt to give her skin contact, and her little fist curled against his chest, sharp nails leaving a line of scratches.

Thor’s face had turned grim at the sight of the infant, and Rogers’ eyes had dimmed. “They don’t get it,” he said softly, and the baby made a little sound.

“We do that, too,” Angrboda said groggily, turning her head to watch him. “Hold the child close.”

“Hey,” Banner said softly, suddenly nervous. His hand curled protectively over the baby’s head. “How do you feel?”

“Battle-weary,” Angrboda said. “Give me my baby.”

There was nothing for it; he couldn’t stretch out the moment to avoid the inevitable. He rose from the chair, holding the baby against his chest, and adjusted the bed. “A little girl,” he supplied, awkwardly, and lowered her into Angrboda’s waiting arms.

A heartbeat, and then another.

The mother cooed. She pressed kisses all over the baby’s face, unwrapping the swaddle to examine and hold the baby close, her expression one of utter delight. One of Angrboda’s hands worked on the robe she wore, opening the front to expose her breast.

Banner swallowed. “I’ll just… I’ll give you a moment. This should be a moment. This is a moment.”

“Thank you, Dr. Banner.”

“Sure.” He paused at the door. “Why did you come here? Why not go back to Jotunheim for help?”

“Interdimensional travel is made difficult by pregnancy.”

“Ah.” 

“Good-bye, Dr. Banner.”

“I’ll be outside if you… if you need anything. Somebody went out and got diapers, some blankets. Do you need anything?”

Angrboda did not answer, only gazed down at the suckling infant with a tender smile. Banner backed through the door, and closed it behind him. 

Thor waited in the hall.

“She’s awake.”

“Good,” Thor said, and reached for the door knob. “I would speak with her.”

“Whoa,” Banner said, in alarm. “She’s… the baby is eating.”

Thor’s expression was blank.

“I’m saying she might want some privacy.”

“On Asgard we celebrate the birth of children with visits and gifts.”

“Thor, she’s not Asgardian. I think she wants to be alone for a minute.”

He considered. “Did she name the child’s father?”

“No.” 

Thor’s voice was grim. “She projected herself into Loki’s cell on Asgard before his death. We did not know the reason for her visit; now I think I know.”

“Thor, a projection isn’t… solid.”

“I would put nothing past Loki.”

“Look, Thor, I know you miss your brother, but this is extreme.” He lay a hand on Thor’s arm. “You said you were sure.”

“And now I’m not sure. The Jotnar do not have much to redeem them, but loyalty is one of their few virtues. She would not mate with another.”

“Come on. Now you’re just being gross.” Banner scrubbed a hand over his face. “Look, she said that interdimensional travel is difficult while pregnant. It was probably someone else.”

“If that is Loki’s child then it belongs on Asgard.”

“You can’t be serious.”

Thor reached for the door.

“Thor, knock it off. You can’t seriously consider taking her baby to Asgard.”

“Has she bewitched you as well, Banner?”

“You’re being a real dick, man!”

The door swung open, and Thor stepped forward. He paused on the threshold and then turned, and marched resolutely down the hall.

The robe Angrboda had worn was laying across the bed, and the room was empty.

Banner stepped through to check the en suite, and then hurried after Thor.


	2. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Appreciation is shown.

There was no news of her; no reports came of a naked woman wandering upstate New York with a newborn in her arms.

Thor left for a while, and Banner suspected that he traveled between the realms, searching for word of Angrboda and her daughter.

Business returned to normal at the training center. Nat and Barton returned from whatever spooky mission they’d been relegated to, and Rogers had a number of new recruits to drill. Banner continued with his research, and if he ever so often pulled up a still shot or two from a frame of the security footage archives, then no one mentioned it. He usually remembered to close it before losing himself down a rabbit hole and working himself to sleep at his desk.

It was a Tuesday night, a number of months later, when the hum of the monitors sang their lullaby and Banner nodded off. The cameras would show him at his desk, head tipped back and mouth open, snoring soundly.

They certainly wouldn’t show a dead man dressed in a suit and overcoat, wearing an expression suited best to chastened men who had some unsavory errand to perform, move soundlessly through the lab and stop behind the sleeping Banner. They wouldn’t show him lean over Banner’s shoulder to peer at his computer monitor, nor the curl of his paternal smile as he studied the face of the infant pulled up on the screen.

The cameras would show, somewhere around 3 o’clock in the morning, a neatly-folded swaddling cloth that smelled of woodsmoke and pine appear on Banner’s desk, and a slip of paper covered with the formula for a new form of potassium iodide that would, upon further study, prove interesting.


End file.
